Ganged up on, ReelShort, the No. 1 overseas short drama platform, is deeply involved in a plagiarism scandal.

Author | Lan Jie

Editor | Qiao Qian

The fierce battle among overseas short - drama platforms has already begun.

On July 25th, Dianzhong Technology issued a statement on its official WeChat account, stating that Crazy Maple Studio, Inc., an affiliated company of Zhongwen Online (hereinafter referred to as "Maple Interactive"), the short - drama platform ReelShort under its banner, without permission, illegally released and disseminated multiple infringing drama series that are basically the same as the works for which Dianzhong Technology holds copyrights and relevant authorizations. These include, but are not limited to: "After Leaving, Two Childhood Sweethearts Regret Deeply", "The Queen", "Respecting the Elderly and Loving the Young", "The Wanderer Returns Home", etc.

Chen Ruiqing, the CEO of Dianzhong Technology, posted three relevant updates on his WeChat Moments and said, "No matter how long the overseas rights - protection path is and how high the cost is, we will firmly safeguard our rights to the end." "This is the bad money driving out the good."

(Moments of Chen Ruiqing, CEO of Dianzhong Technology)

A person close to Dianzhong Technology told 36Kr, "Originally, there were 8 drama series that were communicated to be taken down due to infringement, but in the end, ReelShort only took down 3." "The bosses of both sides have met and talked, but it didn't work."

Dianzhong Technology is not the only one to issue a statement and express its attitude. Leading domestic short - drama brands such as Tinghua Island and Maiya Short - Drama have also successively issued relevant statements, accusing ReelShort of plagiarism.

Wang Li, the overseas head of Maiya Short - Drama, also shared on his WeChat Moments that the legal director of ReelShort suddenly left the communication group and disappeared. The founder of ReelShort once personally signed a "Letter of Commitment" stating that they would not infringe on Maiya's intellectual property rights, but then casually overturned it. "I was forced to speak out on WeChat Moments."

In response, 36Kr inquired with Maple Interactive about the relevant situation. As of press time, the other party has not responded.

(Moments of Wang Li, overseas head of Maiya Short - Drama)

The Galloping ReelShort and the Chasing DramaBox

ReelShort is undoubtedly the leader among overseas short - drama platforms and has maintained its leading position for nearly two years. From March to April 2025, ReelShort also ranked first on the free list of entertainment apps in the US for more than 30 consecutive days.

To some extent, the reason for ReelShort's leadership lies in its early entry into the overseas market and its adoption of a localization strategy from the very beginning.

In the second half of 2023, ReelShort attracted wide attention from domestic and foreign media by topping the US iOS entertainment list, making the industry realize that the overseas short - drama market was still a blue ocean.

At that time, ReelShort launched popular local themes such as "werewolves" and "revenge" for the local market and used local actors and production teams for shooting. Compared with the dubbed dramas that currently occupy about 50% of the market share, it was more popular among local audiences and was also more suitable for the pay - to - watch business model.

36Kr learned that in 2024, ReelShort's revenue reached approximately $300 million, equivalent to about 2.1 billion RMB.

However, the other side of the localization strategy is the difficult - to - increase supply.

In the user reviews of the ReelShort App, a widely mentioned problem is the slow update speed. Compared with the dubbed dramas that can achieve monthly updates of hundreds of shows with the support of AI technology, the number of updates of local short dramas ranges from more than a dozen to dozens per month.

The high labor costs and venue fees in Europe and the United States have pushed the production cost of local dramas up to $150,000 - $200,000 per show, or even higher. Correspondingly, the hit rate in the industry is not high, only about 5%, and successful cases of achieving great results with small investments are even rarer.

Therefore, compared with creating original scripts or acquiring IPs for remakes, directly copying the content that has proven successful in the domestic market is an efficient and lower - risk path. For example, "The Cold - faced Uncle Dotes on His Sister - in - law Endlessly", which ReelShort is accused of plagiarizing, has a popularity of 36.32 million on the Hongguo Short - Drama App and can be regarded as a mid - tier hit in the industry.

Ye, a director with experience in shooting short dramas in the United States, said that plagiarism is an extremely common phenomenon in the short - drama industry both at home and abroad. There are cases where overseas hit short dramas are translated and then copied by domestic screenwriters, and vice versa. As a result, a trend has emerged in the industry - some short - drama actors only know what the script is like after joining the crew. "The secrecy is to this extent."

Different from ReelShort, DramaBox quickly opened up the market by relying on a large number of low - cost dubbed dramas and high - frequency and large - scale advertising campaigns. As previously reported by 36Kr, DramaBox's revenue also exceeded 2 billion RMB. In addition, the download volume of DramaBox in the app store has reached over 100 million, twice that of ReelShort.

Under the competition between the two giants, the head - effect in the overseas short - drama market is obvious. 36Kr learned that in the overseas short - drama market, the market share of the above two major platforms can each reach nearly 30%, leading other platforms by a large margin.

Nowadays, the competition among leading platforms and even in the entire industry is becoming more intense.

In the face of more intense competition, every bit of profit matters

More and more short - drama companies are pouring into the overseas market. According to DataEye, as of March, the number of Chinese short - drama apps in the overseas market has increased to 237, nearly four times the number of the previous year. Including NetShort of Maiya Media, Zhongwen Online has also launched short - drama apps such as Sereal+ and UniReel.

According to relevant data from the Short - Drama Self - study Room, from Q3 2024 to Q2 2025, the average quarterly revenue growth rate of overseas short - dramas reached 47.1%, but the growth rate significantly declined in Q2 2025, dropping by 68%. The main reason is that user growth has encountered a bottleneck.

More and more players are joining the race, but the number of users willing to watch short dramas is not growing at the same rate. Therefore, it has become more urgent to occupy a larger market share more quickly.

Since this year, ReelShort has increased its advertising investment to promote new dramas, and the volume of advertising materials has continued to rise. According to SensorTower data, in the first quarter of 2025, its in - app purchase revenue reached $130 million, nearly half of last year's revenue, making it the champion on the revenue and growth lists of overseas short - drama apps. DramaBox followed closely with a revenue of $120 million and has always maintained a high level of advertising investment among overseas short - drama platforms.

To some extent, the development paths of DramaBox and ReelShort are becoming more and more similar.

Localization ability determines long - term competitiveness. Therefore, DramaBox, which started with dubbed dramas, after the era of rapid expansion, has also begun to target local dramas with higher monetization ability and stronger user stickiness. Now it can produce more than a dozen shows per month, but overall, it still doesn't have the same influence as ReelShort.

Even though the globalization trend of short - dramas going overseas is obvious, and more short - drama companies choose Southeast Asia as their main market, this does not reduce the intensity of competition between DramaBox and ReelShort. According to Diandian Data, from August 2023 to June 2024, the RPD (average revenue per download) in North America was $4.7, and in Europe it was about $2.3, far higher than the average level of 2.0 in the overseas short - drama industry and much higher than the RPD of $0.7 in Southeast Asia.

Now, ReelShort, which focuses on high - quality local short dramas, is deeply involved in a plagiarism scandal. The reasons behind this are the hard - to - guarantee hit rate and the not - so - smooth commercialization process. A person in the industry told 36Kr that compared with DramaBox, which can already support its domestic business, ReelShort's profit situation is not optimistic.

Short - drama companies, including Dianzhong Technology, choose to attack ReelShort collectively. In addition to protecting their own copyrights, it may also include anxiety about the more intense competition. When the race becomes crowded, every bit of profit matters.